53% of U.S. Crypto Investors Fear Higher Tax Bills Under New 2025 IRS Rules, Survey Shows

A survey of 1,000 U.S. cryptocurrency investors by Awaken Tax found that 53% fear new IRS digital asset transparency rules taking effect in 2025 will lead to additional tax bills, while 61% remain confused about how the regulations apply to them and 48% are uncertain about cost basis for older transactions. The finalized IRS guidance places the burden on taxpayers to substantiate cost basis for every asset sold or traded—including transactions from years ago on platforms that may no longer exist—and clarifies treatment of staking rewards, hard forks and decentralized finance transactions. Exchanges including Coinbase, Kraken and Gemini are responding with expanded tax‑reporting tools such as Forms 1099‑MISC, detailed gain/loss reports and third‑party integrations, though these typically cover only on‑platform activity. Tax software providers Awaken Tax, CoinTracker and Koinly report user growth exceeding 200% year‑over‑year as investors seek tools to aggregate data across exchanges, wallets and DEXs, with 72% of surveyed investors planning to use professional tax help this year.